I had not been using photoshop for a very very long time. I usually used photoshop to do graphic design rather than photo editing. Now I realised how much I cound do with photoshop to achieve my desired photo effect... The following pics shows a "BEFORE" and "AFTER" photos. The magic of photoshop Rulz....

[C]irRuS @ Wednesday, July 27, 2005|

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Two new photo album added today.... hehe... Guess why am I so free today??? Because I am having throat infection.... Hahaha Attn C for 2 Days.... Not to forget the 2 new photo albums are namely "Merlion" and "Ah Gong's 81st Birthday".

[C]irRuS @ Wednesday, July 27, 2005|

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Wednesday, July 20, 2005

I was doing traffic directing at the South Break Water Pier this evening. The Indian Navy had organised a cocktail party tonight. Many guests were invited which includes those high ranking officers from the Navy, and VIPs from the embassy. There were guests from over 20 embassy attended this cocktail party. The VIPs' transport were mainly Mercedes Benz with a distinct state flag located at the left side of the vehicle except for the United States Embassy. The US state flag were placed at the right side of the vehicle instead. I think that was why the Americans always think that they were always RIGHT!!!! haha just kidding. The Embassy vehicles were easily spotted with it unique car plate number of SXXXXCD.I was so bored tonight and start chatting with one of the Indian Navy personnel. He was actually a Navy Police Officer. He was really interested about our country, Singapore. He asked me about the economy, birth rate, and not forgetting their favourite topic, SHOPPING. I tried to answer him {or should I say SMOKE him to some extend} with my limited knowledge about Singapore. He told me about the high tax of electronic products in their country, the literacy rate in India, and the Indians was producing about 3 to 4 kiddos per family. He explained to me about the high birth rate with the VERY VERY OLD {LAO KOR KOR} Geography Knowledge that we had learned in secondary school. Low literacy rate were the main reason of high birth rate as the majority of the population were involving in domestic farming.

He complained to be that Mustafa was selling them a washing machine at high price {LG 6 litre washing machine at SGD 250 which I consider VERY VERY CHEAP} and asked me for recommendation of CHEAPER stores. I really had no Idea where can I recommend him to. I think he could not get a price cheaper than that in any other part of Singapore. He asked me about our pay as a NSF, and my plans after national service. The converstion was REALLY a FUNNY ONE. It goes like this:

Raju XXXXX {name too long to remember}: What will you do after 2 years?Me: I will join the workforceRaju XXXX: What???Me: I will join the workforce to workRaju XXXX {Don't really get what I mean and give me a BLUR look}: Silent....Me: I will join the SOCIETY to work...Raju XXXX: You mean you are joining another SOCIETY...Me {Don't know what to reply him and thinking what society can I join in Singapore ... SECRET SOCIETY... HAHA!}: Silent for awhile....Me: I will be getting a job.... {finally found a simple way to phrase it for him}

Indian Navy were really famous in our base. Everytime they come to Singapore, you will see them buying lotsa Television and other electrical appliances from Mustafa. I think Mustafa should have earn BIG BUCKS every trip they sailed to Singapore. We always joke about their missile laucher were all packed with television set rather than ammunition... Haha!!! A televsion fired out could be better than a missile with all its broken glasses and electronic circuits.... This time round with an aircraft carrier berthed at our base, it means more works had to be done to screen through all the TELEVISON SET. {:P}

[C]irRuS @ Wednesday, July 20, 2005|

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Sunday, July 17, 2005

Finally I had the time to try out my new camera. Actually I plan to go to Raffles place to take some photos, but my laopo suggested a better place. It was the Singapore Botanic Garden. To be very honest, I had never been to the botanic garden before. This was my first time there, and I was really excited about it. I decided not to push pram there as I want to let my darling boy run around in the park. Feel the air of nature.... Catch the feel of freedom....

I think the main gate of Botanic Garden was under renovation, and we went in from the side gate. My wife showed my little boy fishes, and pond skaters in streams of water while I was busy taking photographs. I had some difficulties taking the pic of a damselfly, as I could not focus properly due to shaky hand. I finally gave up after it flew away. We walked towards the swan lake, and up the hill trying to looked for the Bonsai Garden. We stopped by a park directory to looked for the location of the Bonsai Garden, then I realised that the Botanic garden was really big. It stretched all the way from Tanglin to Bukit Timah.

We walked 2 rounds trying to looked for the bonsai garden, but it was no where to be found. Actually I wana go to Sundial Park but I was afraid that we would spend too long in that portion of the park. We walked through the Fagippani Garden, and it was really a wonderful sight. The bricks constructed gateway was really beautiful. I saw a pavilion with Yellow Flame planted alongside. I really wanted to take some pics of it but I could not find a perfect angle. Moreover some construction work was still in progress.

We strolled through the Rainforest Walk, and saw a man-made waterfall. Mummy and baby took some pics there. Mummy was extremely tired today. Arm feeling strengthless, and back aching badly. I think I had made the wrong decision not to bring along the pram. My little boy refused to walked today, and was rather clingy to mummy. Mummy had carried baby all the way from the starting point. I would like to share the load {my little boy} with her, but he refused to be carried by me.

When we reached the Musical Lake, we saw a little girl crying for her Beach Ball that had rolled down the hill into the lake. Mummy asked me to helped her get it out of the lake, and offered her umbrella as extension. We { two other passerby and I} tried it out, but just could not reached it. When we finally gave up, a man {I think is the little girl's father} came forward and borrowed the umbrella. He lied flat on the ground and stretched out the umbrella. Guess what??? He was successful...

We continued our journey, and saw some ducks in the pond. We took some photographs of them. Then we headed towards the Eco Garden. It was really a long journey there. Mummy's arms were breaking.The sky turns dark and it started drizzling. We decided to walked back to Tanglin to catch a bus back. Along the way back, we met the Park Ranger on a buggy.We asked him for the nearest exit, but it was really far. He was really kind and offered to give us a ride to the exit. Mummy, baby, and ParkRanger took a photograph together. We followed his instruction and walked through some private housing to the nearest bus stop. I had never expected that we could walked so far. We had walked from Tanglin to Farrer Road in these 3 hours.

We hopped onto bus 174 not long after we reached the bus stop. The bus headed to Orchard Road. We planned to have our dinner at McD {Very very long never eat liao} but it was too crowded. At last I decided to go back to Tiong Bahru for dinner. When we come out from the MRT station, we were attracted by a mini concert organised by CDC. We watched it for awhile before we had our dinner at McD.

I decided to bring my darling boy to see a doctor for his rashes after our dinner. The doctor looked at the conditions of his rashes, and diagnosed that it was Eczema. The doctor said that one out of four children in Singapore suffered from Eczema. Though the doctor said that my little boy should not go under the Sun, and sweat too much, we decided that it would only be healthier for kids to be exposed to a moderate amount of sunlight. The doctor encouraged my little boy to continue to take seafood but at a moderate level rather than a total cut off.

[C]irRuS @ Sunday, July 17, 2005|

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Finally I had the time to put up some of the photos that I liked. Feel free to browse them. The links are all at the left panel of the blog..... Enjoy.... More pics on Botanic Garden Tour will be posted soon. Stay tuned....

[C]irRuS @ Sunday, July 17, 2005|

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Sunday, July 10, 2005

Actually I planned to go Sim Lim Square with Shao this saturday, but Shao told me that Sim Lim Square was under renovation. I could not wait any further to get my favourite camera, hence I decided to go to Budget Electronic store at Harborfront to check it out today. It was a long journey there, though harbourfront was just afew stops away. I took a free shuttle service to harbourfront. It was raining and I waited for the shuttle bus for about an hour. Actually the bus came at about 1400 hrs but I missed it as there was no indication on the private bus that it was going to habourfront. As a result I waited for another half an hour for another bus. This time round, the bus was wrapped around with Mt Faber sticker. I walked forward to checked with the bus driver the destination that it was heading to. He told me that the bus will be stopping at Mt Faber, and I had to wait for another Shuttle bus to go to harbourfront.

I board the bus immediately. I went to Mt Faber and waited for another half an hour for the bus. When I finally reached harbourfront, I hurried to the Budget Electronic Store. I was really disappointed when the shop assistant told me that they did not have Sony DSC H1. I thought that I would get a good price there, but it did not work out as I had expected. I think I should try my luck at Chinatown.I went home first to wait for my wife and darling boy to come back from Xavier's birthday party. Meanwhile I watched the VCDs "The King of Yesterday and Tomorrow" that I had borowed from David. I asked my wife not to come back so early as it was raining heavily here. They came home at around 1900 hrs and we went to Chinatown together for the camera. This time round, we went to another store to checked out the price. The store offered me SGD 750 w/o Gst. I think that it was really a good catch, and we decided to buy it. The shop that we went to the other day offered us SGD 830.

We continued to bargain with the shop assistant to get a lower price. We finally purchased it at a price of SGD 740 w/o gst. It would be SGD 777 with GST. We had saved around SGD 122 {Price offered by Sony}. I bought a LCD protector, and also a polarising filter. We spent a total of SGD 810. Actually I had only pay SGD310. My wife had paid the othe SGD 500 as my Birthday present. I was so happy, but I was quite guilty to spend women's money {Ithink this is how a MCP would feel}.

[C]irRuS @ Sunday, July 10, 2005|

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Friday, July 08, 2005

I think I could practically see all sorts of weird and unusual things happening in Changi Naval Base. This morning, the guard commander asked me for white tape to cordon off a stretch of road behind Fleet Command Building. Out of curiosity {or should i say "KPOness"}, I asked him the reason for cordoning off the area. I was told that there was a very huge beehive near lamp post 91. I volunteered to help him to cordon off the area {not really because that I was helpful} so that I could have a good view of the beehive. I travelled there by Buggy.Though the distance was not really long, it seemed to take us ages to reach. Both of us were getting more worried of "BEE ATTACK" every inch closer. When we finally reached there, we saw a huge beehive {about the size of 1.5 black trash bag} on a tree along the road {opposite lampost 91}. When we got down the buggy to have a closer look, we realised that it was not a Beehive. A battalion of bees had clustered F**K on the tree, stacking on top of one another, forming the shape of a hive. We cordoned of the road, and the rest of the job were left for the Pest Control.I feel so bad for the staff sergeant that sergeant Kenny booked this morning. Though he was really in the wrong for cutting mohawk hairstyle, I really sympathised him. Sgt Kenny and I planned to go to the sports complex. The moment we reached X-ray post, Platoon Sergent Leon stopped sergeant Kenny. He asked Sergeant Kenny to booked a staff sergeant who had improper turnout. At first sgt Kenny refuse to book him, as he was not in uniform. He got no choice but to booked him immediately as the instruction was passed down from SWO Balvinder. After Sgt Kenny booked him, SWO demanded to take pics of him as evidence. The staff sergent refused to take photograph despite our persuasion. He followed us back to the guard house to inform his squadron coaxain about his request for not taking pics. He was really unlucky to meet Major Aru {just promoted, full of fire} in the guard house. Major Aru enquired us about the situation, and demanded him to take photographs immediately. In thier arguments, I realised that the staff sergeant is going to ROD this coming september. He was forced to retire {not getting contract renewal}. I could understand how a MAN who had family to support felt, when he was honourably discharged. He was in his fourties... He had served the Navy for 20 over years... but he was not given a chance to stay on to a job that he had been in for decades... During their argument, I could see tears rolling at the rims of his eyes. I could feel that he was not in the right state of mind. He was really depressed but could not express his feeling to outsiders. It was really hard being a MAN. After taking his photographs, he was booked for both improper turnout and insubordination. His Squadron coaxain was called to the guardhouse, and he was reprimanded. I really hope that notting would happen to him....

[C]irRuS @ Friday, July 08, 2005|

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Monday, July 04, 2005

Today is MONDAY again. I dragged myself back to camp as usual.I should describe it as "MONDAY BLUE". The first thing that I heard from CSM this morning was really shocking. He told me that the Light Patrol Vehicle {LPV} burst into flame on Saturday. Investigation for this incident was carried out for the entire day {Monday}. While I was doing painting job at the back of the guardhouse (just beside the carpark), I overheard {eavesdropped}the conversation between the officers and CSM. They said that they had found some food in the bonnet of the vehicle. They had suspected that rats might had bitten the wiring of the vehicle and caused sparks to occured. As a result, it lead to a terrible fire.

Quite funny right??? I think they were just trying to find a way to cover their own asses in order to submit a proper incident report {rather than blaming on the ACT OF GOD}. haha...

When I reached the camp early in the moring, I opened up my store and found MANY MANY used fire extinguisher {about 8}. I think we, sea soldier, had finally put the fire fighting skills that we had learned into practise this time. I thought that the fire was really terrible that so many fire extinguishers were used, but that was not the case. When I went to the carpark to see the burnt car, I realised that it was not badly burned after all. This showed that the lack of practise {using fire extinguisher} had caused much difficulties for them to put off the fire.

Anyway it was really fortunate that no one was injured in this incident, and all those who were involved had reacted well. Other vehicles were drove away quickly to prevent the fire from spreading over. I think that they were really brave to have the courage to put off the fire, as a burning vehicle might explode anytime.

Though this was really something bad, some one had benefitted from this incident too. At least Phoon {a Driver} need not pay for the car damage {due to accident}, as the LTB personnel had agreed to help him covered up by replacing the unburn part of the vehicle to the damaged vehicle,and report that it was burned. They had agreed to cover up so that they could write lesser report. A WIN -WIN situation was established. Ha ha... at least a HAPPY ENDING

[C]irRuS @ Monday, July 04, 2005|

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Saturday, July 02, 2005

Jia You! Jia You! Jia You! Today is my baobei boy boy first sports day in his life. Though the organisation was abit messy, it still filled with lotsa fun and laughter. We had our breakfast at home {CQYD Noodle with Hotdogs} before we went to Superland Montessori to catch the school bus to Marina City Park. This was the second time I went to the park, I went there end of last year for my BMT school 1 live run. The park was really big and beautiful, but today we did not have enough time to explore the entire park. The programme of today was as follow:

10.20am Parents-Teachers Events: Warm-up exercise 2-men-3-legged race Ping-pong in the spoon {I got participate, they scared we cock up the game so they change to tennis ball inspoon}

10.40am Snacks and refreshment {Yummy time!!!}

11.20am Home Sweet Home {but we went to roamed around the park instead}

Along the way to school, my boy boy saw a big black ant crawling of the floor. He was squatting there saying "Ma Yi! Ma Yi!" {Ant in mandarin}. I took photo of him squatting down looking at ant {So Cute... }. We reached the school at around 0830, and I saw afew pots of plants planted by those kiddos along the doorway. I started looking around for my son's plant. I saw Jordan's seedling, Jaden's seedling {my son;s classmates}, but Joshua's seedling was no where to be found. I used my X-Ray eyes to scan from pot to pot, but I just could't find it. Just when I was looking for his plant, he started using a empty container to water the plants {act only!!!}. I helped Mdm Lee to bring down some mattresses for the games before we board the bus at around 0845.

We reached Marina city at around 0900. There were alotsa big red ants. Stephy {my son's classmate} and I were attacked by 3 of them. Many parents started complaining about red ants, but the sports continued. My boy was very sporty though he was abit clingy to us during the Music and Movement session. He did very well in the Sport events. H ecompeted in the Fuit Basket & Creepy Crawly events {twice in each events}. He was rewarded with a goodie bag filled with Umeya candies. Throughout the entire session, I took many pics of all the kiddos playing games and having fun. It was so fun seeing kiddos cheering loud for their friends throughout the games. I had not participate in such a fun sports day for a long long time { I think the last time I participated in a non formal (game like not plain running) sports day was when I was in primary 2 or 3}.

Actually I wana participate in the 2-men-3-legged race with my wife {I think she was too shy and gave excuse that she wana take care of sonny}. She finally agreed to take part in the race after much persuasion, but they already had enough participants. At last I participated in 1 event, which was Ping-pong in the spoon. A tennis ball was used instead. Participants were to hold a tennis ball with a spoon and run to and fro. Guess what??? The mummies won the game {Because they had two persons lesser....}.

We had our BLunch {breakfast cum lunch} after all the games. We ate Beehoon, hotdos sotong balls, doughnuts, puddings, and watermelons {alot of food hor}. I took pics of my son's eating watermelon {mesmerised in eating watermelon and of course making a big MESS!!!}. We went to roamed around the park while the others took the school bus back to school {Home Sweet Home}. We saw lotsa butterflies in the park {my darling boy favourite insects}. We took photographs at constellation plaza {a rock monument} and on a log. Actually I wana explored further into the park, but the idea was withdrawn due to the hot weather and I scared my laopo tired.

We walked a long long way out to the MRT station. We hopped onto the train to Lavender. We plan to go to Concourse {Next to Golden Mile Tower} to grabbed some cheap toys for our son {Baby faire offers}. I think we were there abit too late, most the toys were wiped out by HUNGRY parents {So sad... disappointed}. Concourse was really a nice building, I took several pics of her {appreciate the art of the architect... HAHA!!!}. Actually I wana shopped around for awhile, but I suddenly changed my mind when I saw the shuttle bus to Cityhall. Darling boy fall asleep not long after we reached cityhall. I decided to bring him home instead of continuing our shopping trip....